Grieve Weave

This series of artist’s books integrates ghost prints into a unified book structure where the woven image hovers in an abstract, hard-to-decipher place. The works can be titled, flipped, opened, re-hung, or re-positioned in multiple directions, and that no focal point or "correct" orientation exists in the work itself. What happens when a text, image, or book is seductive but difficult to read? Abstraction in the book form defies easy reading; as queer art historian David Getsy writes, “queer abstraction” can act as a form of camouflage, non-disclosure, or method for jamming the surveillance of queer bodies. Navigating queer and transness over two decades of political change, I’m ever more convinced it cannot be entirely understood or legitimized through representation and public visibility. Grieve Weave accesses what is felt or sensed but not entirely visible. A weaving cannot be read as a traditional book, and yet it has deep historical connections to text and today's information technologies. Weaving is a form of ancestral knowledge and a companion in the contempation of grief. The series is not explicitly about identity, but instead about creating book objects that hover alongside it.

Grieve Weave 9 (overlapping grief weave) / Bauhaus wallpaper Ouija tea set, 2023, Artists' book: monoprint on coventry rag and somerset, asahi silk and iris rayon bookcloth.

Grieve Weave 13 (radiating kindness weave) / Bauhaus wallpaper Oujia clutch, 2023, Artists' book: monoprint on woven Somerset paper, Asahi mohair and Iris rayon bookcloth.

Grieve Weave 15 (Clarice Lispector weave) / Bauhaus wallpaper Oujia passport holder, 2024, Artists' book: monoprint and etching on somerset and pescia, letterpress on mohawk superfine, asahi silk bookcloth.